


Won't Be Anybody After You

by Meghan8awesome



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Established Relationship, Happy Ending, Hurt Matt, Lance does a lot of crying, M/M, Near Death Experiences, Not Canon Compliant, Post Season 8, prepare for pain, this is sappy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-10-27 16:04:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17769923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meghan8awesome/pseuds/Meghan8awesome
Summary: There isn't anyone else for him. He's it, he's the only one. There won't be anyone else after him no matter how long the after is.Matt takes on something he probably shouldn't have and Lance tries to process what life without Matt could be like.





	Won't Be Anybody After You

**Author's Note:**

> I'M ALIVE!!!! 
> 
> Long time no post! But here I am back on my bullshit. I've been pretty busy the last little while with my last semester of uni and some mental health issues, but I've been working pretty steadily on stuff. I've got some fun but massive oneshots that are in their final stages of writing. I've got some new aus running around and some big stuff I've got all planned out. Most importantly though for my loyal readers, I've got the next chapter of Gotta Catch (Him) All almost done. That has been a slow going process, between all the weird shit in my life and just plain writers block, I haven't gotten that as close to finished as I wanted to. I will be finishing that fucker though. It's happening. It will end. Then I'm probably going to stick to short things for a bit as I write some of my bigger projects (I want to write them to completion before posting so this doesn't happen again).
> 
> Anyway, long author's note is long. 
> 
> Title and Inspiration for this fic comes from Meghan Trainor's song After You. It's really good and I recommend giving it a listen.

The mission was simple. A couple of ships to put down a small pocket of violence in a nearby galaxy. The Galra had been mostly subdued and The Blade of Marmora’s work in setting them on a more peaceful path continued to be rather successful.

Matt had been called up for the mission in a heartbeat. He was a top negotiator for the Coalition and a more than solid fighter. If they could have chosen literally anyone for the mission, they still would have chosen him.

He went willingly though not without reservation. He had just married the love of his life in a small ceremony and he’d gotten he call moments after they’d walked back through the door of their house after their rather long and relaxing honeymoon. Being saviours of the universe did come with perks sometimes and when your new husband happens to be the right arm of Voltron? People tended to try and keep a warrior of that caliber happy, even if it meant a month-long vacation for their honeymoon.

Lance had looked Matt in the eye once he’d hung up. Resigned. Matt was going to go whether Lance wanted him to or not. That’s just who Matt was, there was a threat to the peace near enough to his home to be a danger to his family. He would have gone anyways but the fact that it was so close to home, so close to his parents, so close to his sister who was still fighting war flashbacks.

So close to the husband he adored, who still shook in Coalition meetings. Who cried in the night when the nightmares got too much.

Matt, like Keith, wasn’t out of the fighting yet. He was still knee deep in the cleanup. He had his issues don’t get me wrong, but he wasn’t allowed to rest yet, he wouldn’t allow himself to rest until it was over. Lance and Pidge? Their job was done, they had seen the worst of it. They’d been tortured in so many ways, seen way too much way too young. Lance had died already for god sakes! He’d given his life once for the peace they had, Matt wasn’t going to quit until he knew that peace would stick.

This conviction is what had him and Lance flying to the Coalition nee Rebel base. Lance had insisted on going even if he was just staying at the base. Matt wouldn’t let him join the fight, even if he wanted to. So, he’d set himself up with a monitoring station on the command deck and relayed information while he kept can eye on things.

It was Lance who’d noticed the pattern the Galra ships were in. It was him who’d recognized the ambush for what it was. The trap his husband was flying into.

Lance hadn’t been fast enough to stop the shot from connecting, but he’d been fast enough for Matt to know it was coming and limit the damage to his squadron.

His own ship on the other hand? Not as lucky.

The rogue Galra had what looked like an Ion Cannon but it wasn’t quite as devastating. The lions would have been fine, but a small rebel fighter was another matter.

Most of Matt’s squad heeded their commander’s instructions, getting out of the way as best as they could. Matt hadn’t changed course. Lance was not happy.

“Matthew Leslie Holt if you got your god damn ass merked by that canon I will kill you myself! Do you hear me! I will kill you myself!” Lance screams into his private commlink with his husband as he runs full tilt to a fighter in the base’s hanger.

He’s blocked by a group of soldiers. They won’t let him through to a ship. He may be the red paladin but that doesn’t come with authority higher than Matt’s on this base and Matt had ordered them to keep Lance on base if anything like this happened.

He’s confined to the command deck once again, but his station has been taken over by another officer. They don’t let him do anything and they don’t let him leave until they have the crew of Matt’s ship on board and heading for the medical wing of the base.

Lance can’t run fast enough.

He skids into the med bay and everyone clears out if his way when they see him coming. They open a clear path to the bed where they’ve put Matt.

Lance scrambles to his husband’s bedside. The rebel is unconscious, he’s got bandages over most of his torso, arms and head and his breathing is shallow and laboured. The medics must have waited to inform Lance because it’s more than just emergency first aid. Lance drops into the chair that was left nearby and grabs Matt’s right hand gently.

One of the doctors on board is updating one of the other commanders behind him. He hears something that makes his blood run cold.

“The commander sustained the most damage, we’re not expecting him to wake up anytime soon if he wakes up at all. We’re not sure if he’s going to make it through the varga, let alone the quintant. He took a lot of damage from the blast alone, but the crash afterwards is the most concerning cause of injury. His body is used to channeling energy like that, which is worrisome but worked in his favour today, the blunt force caused by the crash crushed him between the console and his chair. His torso suffered the most damage and his head injuries are more than concerning. We should prepare his husband for the worst when he gets here, a civilian won’t be able to comprehend most of the cause—”

“That would be the case if his husband was a civilian. But I’m not.” Lance interrupts the doctor. “I’m the former Red Paladin of Voltron, injuries like these were pretty commonplace in the war. Now if you’re done explaining my husband’s condition to everyone but me, I’d appreciate you getting your ass in gear and finding a way to help him that’s more than just worries and bandages!”

The doctor cowers at Lance’s anger before scurrying away to hopefully comply with Lance’s instructions. The other commander meets Lance’s eyes before departing the med bay with a quick nod.

Lance slumps in his chair and holds Matt’s hand as tight as he can without possibly hurting his husband more.

He doesn’t notice when the tears start but once they’re streaming down his face there’s nothing he can do to stop them.

“You idiot!” he sobs, “Why couldn’t you have listened to me this once? All you had to do was dodge the blast, why didn’t you? Why didn’t you listen to me?”

A curtain is pulled around their little area for more privacy, but Lance is crying too hard to notice.

“We just got married Matt, you can’t do this to me so soon. We haven’t had enough time. We’re supposed to be cheesy and unbearably in love for years yet. We’re supposed to go to the shelter together and get a dog for our massive backyard and talk late into the night about our todays and our yesterdays and our tomorrows. Especially our tomorrows. We haven’t had our first anniversary yet, we haven’t gotten to flaunt our rings in front of all our jealous friends and coworkers.” He chokes on a heavy sob.

“We’re supposed to grow old together. You can’t leave me yet. You can’t leave me here alone, I can’t live in a universe without you in it.” Lance’s sobbing holds his words in his throat.

“You’re it for me Matt. There is nobody else in this universe for me but you, you are my everything and there won’t ever be anybody after you. Please don’t go Matt. Please don’t leave me.”

Lance puts his head on the bed and cries. He sobs and wails and cries. He loses his grip on the world around him and lets the fear and pain consume him.

If you ask him, he won’t be able to tell you how long he was like that, but he’s brought back to reality by a hand resting gently on the top of his head. He sniffles as he raises his head enough to see his husband’s eyes open and staring at him.

“Matt?”

Matt smiles tiredly down at him. “Hey love.” He rasps.

Lance stares at him, open mouthed.

“Have you been crying?” his husband asks. He brings his right hand down to cradle Lance’s cheek and uses his thumb to wipe some of the tears, that are still falling, away.

Lance chokes and starts sobbing again, leaning into the hand on his face and bringing his own hands to cradle it. He cries as Matt tries to calm him down with quiet assurances.

It’s much later, Lance having fallen asleep from the emotional exhaustion and waking up to Matt stroking his hair and running his hand across Lance’s cheek, that he finally let’s things other than grief and pain hit him.

“You’re an asshole.” He says, his voice gritty with sleep.

“I know.”

“Don’t you ever fucking dare do that to me again. You are so lucky I’m so happy you’re alive right now.” Lance says, the unspoken threat clear in his voice.

“I’m sorry.” Matt whispers, still stroking his thumb across Lance’s cheek.

“You’d fucking better be.” He leans into the feeling if his husband’s hand, warm and alive.

“I’m going to be trying to make this up to you for the rest of my life.”

“That better be a long time. If it’s not, being dead will be the least of your worries.” The threat is in the glare he meets Matt’s eyes with.

“I don’t doubt that. I promised you forever, breaking that promise is not and will never be, an option.” Matt replies, his tone and face as serious as possible with bandages covering half his face in odd angles.

“Good. Now you need to rest and heal, and once you’re well enough we are going home and staying there. No more surprise missions.”

Matt smiles fondly down at Lance, “Deal.”

Lance goes to move away from the bed to allow Matt the room to get comfortable on the cot. He doesn’t get far before Matt grabs his hand to keep him from moving too far away.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Lance chuckles, “Nowhere, just giving you some room.”

Matt tightens his grip on Lance’s hand, “I don’t want any space between us, get up here.”

“Matt that is a terrible idea, you have a lot of internal damage and these cots aren’t nearly big enough. I’ll stay right here on my chair. I’m not going anywhere.” Lance assures.

“Fine. But this hand is mine now. You’re never getting it back.”

“I can live with that.” Lance scoots the chair closer to the bed.

They sit in silence after that.

Lance is nodding off in his chair, moments from sleep when he hears Matt whisper “I love you Lance.”

Lance smiles to himself and whispers “I love you too Matt.” before they both slip off to sleep.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> SO that happened. I don't know what it is with me and bringing the sad, it just happens. I need some happier stuff on here ASAP. 
> 
> Anyway, let me know what you think of this madness or if you just want to scream at me. Comments legitimately give me life and I like hearing from you. If you want to send me a lengthy rant or to say hi or just scream, I'm meghan8awesome on Tumblr and my inbox is always open. 
> 
> (Fuck you formatting and American spelling conventions! I am Canadian THE 'u's ARE THERE FOR A REASON AND I WANT TO KEEP MY INDENTS THANK YOU VERY MUCH)


End file.
